


Consulting Patterns

by Camlann



Series: Latticework Souls [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, F/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-05 16:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1824400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camlann/pseuds/Camlann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're under a storm watch, Coulson having called Darcy on more than one occasion when explaining who she was as "Tempest Lewis." And the team has to make sure that they're always under observation. But what does Phil expect to happen? </p>
<p>Well... it's not that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Glass Walls

The world isn’t meant to be only seen. There are the senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound. And then there is emotion, that flows from and to people like little red strings of fate. There are many worlds out there and yet, some veins span the universe. Farther than that, even, depending on what theories Reed Richards has come up with this week about multiple dimensions.

But the point was that the world wasn’t meant to be seen through glass. Not a window or a screen or even a mirror.

So how he always found himself doing so is beyond him.

Because there stands Director Coulson, arms crossed and watching through the glass of the tank as Darcy Lewis reams a man that should scare her beyond her senses. Yet, all she can seem to do is chew into him, as if she’s known him all her life and he’s done something so stupid she can’t fathom it. Then, falling into him, the Director expects her to be dropped. Backed from. Too much stimulus for a man already in a world all his own, mostly in his own head from their observations and questions, testing and doctor visits.

Instead, she’s caught with open arms and a kiss. A strength unlike the powers they’d seen destroy so much pulls her into an embrace and Coulson wonders. Or he does until he sees the looping form across her hand, across the other’s back.

Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

He has an agent grab Doctor Foster who goes for the door, a yelp on her lips that the two inside the tank can’t hear or can’t acknowledge with what’s going on between them. And there’s more questions than answers, and he’s been looking for answers for awhile now.

The problem remains that Miss Lewis has either lied along the way or she’s found herself in quicksand and they can’t be sure if pulling her out of it will help.

They have an agency to rebuild, after all. And this man was the key to its destruction the first time. Who was to say he wouldn’t be again? SHIELD didn’t know what kind of programming he’d been under, what he’d been told, or what he believed. Then and now. All problems upon problems upon painful problems. Because this man was supposed to be a hero. Was, in the eyes of many.

Phil Coulson included as he ordered the tank to be locked quietly, Jane taken from the room as she hurled spiced words at the Director to, “Let her _go_!”

He couldn’t do that. Not when he possibly held the key in his hands to how to break into the mind of the one Winter Soldier. That the man happened to also be James Barnes, friend to Captain America and a hero in the Director’s eyes for all his past deeds in the Howling Commandos? Well. It just had to come down to what was the best choice for right now.

And that was keeping Miss Lewis where she was, despite the Doctor’s yells that they had no right to lock her in there.

They had every right. They were SHIELD, after all, and he dismisses the others in the room.

“I see you two know each other.”

There’s a pause in the tank, quiet words strung between the two soul bonded ones beyond the glass. And if the agent looks hard enough, he can imagine the letters on yarn that encircles both, tying them together and rubbing across their prints, latticework across their skin that is more raw than inked, more branded than tattooed.

“Um. So. Here’s the thing.”

“He’s a convicted felon, Miss Lewis.”

“Yeah, I just found out. Thanks for the heads up.”

But she’s still standing in the circle of his arms. James’ gaze, however, is not on her. Or on him, for that matter. It’s on the door and then on the glass around them and then finally, finally… it lands on the Director.

Phil Coulson is not easy to intimidate. But considering what this man has done, how he’s done it, who he’s killed and why. Well. He can feel Russia’s winter chill run down his spine.

He wasn’t a man to play ball with and he couldn’t be intimidated.

And he’d kill to make things right.

“Let her out.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Barnes.”

“Why? I’m the one you’re trying to break.”

And there’s a glint of anger in those eyes and the Director steps closer to the glass, looking at it instead. There’s a noise from Miss Lewis, her words tumbling from her as she tries to conceive this new information. That’s why he’s here? But. He’s a national hero!

“I’m also someone known as the Winter Soldier, doll,” is the soft reply and Phil continues on his way to the controls of the tank, standing there quietly as the two inside speak to each other. “An assassin. You _know_ me, Darcy. I’m the one... I’m the one that put that mark around your neck.”

Phil finally eyes the young woman closer as she wavers, looking where her fingers touch and how had he missed the pattern there? Red and almost angry, he presses his lips together and remains quiet. An observer. It’s how he learns most his information, by being part but not participant.

“But you’re not bad…” Darcy trails off, shuffling out of his hold and pacing in front of the assassin that has changed history over and over again. “I mean. You aren’t, right? You’re sure?”

“I can’t say that I’m not.”

“What could you have done that made you _bad_?!”

That the soldier doesn’t say anything more is telling and Phil intervenes, sparing them a both a bit of pain. Hopefully. Stepping forward, he hums to gather at least James’ attention. And with eyes not on her, Darcy soon turns and tries not to glare through the glass at him. Granted, he doesn’t think that he’s the problem, but the woman is young and needs someone to blame. It might as well be him. He’s willing to be the bad guy.

He wonders, briefly as he curls his hands into each other at the small of back, leather gloves creaking, if he would have been a good father.

“Miss Lewis, Sergeant Barnes has had many lives. You know him as a Howling Commando, no doubt. Please don’t look so surprised, you know SHIELD methods and you know that I know more about your history than I’m willing to use right now.”

Of course, that makes her shuffle on her feet, backwards into her bonded. And James doesn’t look too thrilled either that he knows something about Darcy. Everything about Darcy, in fact.

Her mother and father were hard workers, though her mother was a bit of a loose end. She’d been off the map before, a child of a couple who lived in a commune. Met a man at a concert who worked on cars, fell in love. Her father had the occasional scuffle but nothing too bad, and when he was no longer a bachelor, he stopped his leather jacket days all together. First came love, then came marriage, and there was a baby boy. And then Darcy came into the world. And then they’d grown, pretty quiet kids. Good form.

Brother into the military. Darcy into college. Brother married. Brother an expecting father with a girl who the family loved. Brother didn’t come back from war…

Looking at Darcy before him, he thinks how all that’s affected her. Truly. She was a montage, a collage. She wasn’t anything like anyone he’s ever seen before, or dealt with. And that was a true feat, considering how many times he’s been around the block with all sorts of people. Darcy Lewis is unique in a world of superheroes, aliens, and the regular Joe.

It made her a little bit _dangerous_ , too. Maybe more than a little.

Though definitely not as much as the man behind her, tightening his hold around her waist and she stared the Director in the eye and didn’t flinch. She may be wobbling in her socks, but she wasn’t backing down. And Phil could see her hand at her thigh, as if reaching for her taser.

“You know history, Miss Lewis. So you know him. When he fell, he came into contact with HYDRA. A name you must have been hearing on the news lately.”

She’s pale. Very much so. And he doesn’t need her swooning so he goes for the door. But there’s a growl and James has her up in his arms as she tries to wiggle away from him. Phil doesn’t know what to do in that moment. All his training hasn’t included a young, bonded woman with her soul mate fighting for both him and herself, trying to find where common ground was. Fighting he knew. This? He didn’t.

“HYDRA!? But. You. You were violently against them! You tore them down!”

“Who do you think gave me my arm? How do you think that even happened?”

“What arm!?”

And he does unlock the door when the gasp falls from Darcy’s lips, the young woman being dropped (carefully) to her feet before she stumbles backwards in slick socks and covers her mouth with her palm. Because she hasn’t noticed, that much is obvious. She was so focused on his face, who he was to her, that she hasn’t paid attention to anything else.

“You were. Hurt. And they did. This?”

Phil, standing in the doorway, doesn’t know if he should intervene or not.

“Yes.”

“And then?”

“Frozen. Like… the Captain. Only on purpose.”

The young woman who plays games with demi gods. Who wields electricity in her palm and refused to move out of the way of a fire breathing monster until everyone else was out but the warriors, and she swallows hard at that. Enough that her eyes hold a shine as she drops her hand, fists at her sides as she closes her gaze to the world and takes a deep breath.

“What happens next?”

At least his prediction was right. Darcy seems to be the key to something deeper inside this man before them. Something that perhaps would let SHIELD inside as well, though looking between James Barnes and this woman who holds his world seemingly in her palm, he doubts it’ll be that easy. That simple to use her like that.

Because when James steps forward, she just shudders. She doesn’t move back but her hand moves up to touch her neck. And that simple thing makes the other flinch. He is a battle hardened soldier. He has been tortured. And remembered pain of a unique, but at the time insignificant girl still brings him to physically recoil. It wasn’t something he was even aware of doing, perhaps, for the assassin’s face was shuttered just as soon after as it had been before. But his body language, his actions, spoke loud enough to break the sound barrier with a sonic boom.

A step. Two. And then he has his hands on Darcy’s biceps. Phil stays perfectly still, not daring to breath more than a shallow, silent breath. For he touches her with both hands, even the bionic one. And she doesn’t move back, but forward.

Though her eyes remain close, she steps forward and Phil thinks that this. This is why she has been paired by the universe at large to this memorialized but hardly saved veteran.

“I kill the Starks. I silence political leaders HYDRA believes are going to ruin their silent agenda. I become not one, but many, heads on a bigger body. I am not the trigger, I’m not the gun. I’m not even the bullet. I’m the end game plan and I’m good at what I do.”

“Assassin.”

“Yes.”

“Were. Were you going to kill me?”

“.... Yes.”

“You won’t try again, right?”

“Darcy…”

“No. You’re not allowed to try again.”

It’s a whisper, but James nods and Phil steps back, though the door remains open. The two before him, having gone from enraged and surprised to quiet and humbled to scared and solemn, have reached an end. For now, at least. And Darcy steps back, perhaps having felt his eyes on her, to look at him.

Phil tilts his head, wondering what she’ll want. Say. _Do_. She’s never been quiet or sat still for longer than a few minutes. Not for as long as he’s known her through cameras and files and updates.

“I’m staying.”

“Darcy, no.”

“As you wish, Miss Lewis.”

“No!”

But it’s already done and the Director closes the door as the glass tints. The world wasn’t meant to be seen through glass. Not a window or a screen or even a mirror. But the tank that held James Barnes wasn’t any of these things. It was a cell.

And for him, it was most likely a familiar view. Now? It would also be the same for Miss Lewis. And only time would tell if she could turn it into anything other than a prison.


	2. Hole in the Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not everything can go according to plan. Then again, Phil doesn't think they really had a sure fire plan to begin with. Not when Darcy had been added to the mix.

Every other night, he tells her to go. And every time, she curls into him tighter and stays. Granted, she’s not very awake, but still.

Phil finds this all very fascinating, watching on a monitor in another room, coffee in one hand and a report in another. The team has said he’s spending too much time in the small room in front of the even smaller screen. But he just doesn’t… understand.

She doesn’t know him. Not really anything about him. James Barnes has threatened her in Russian, terrified her into curling up on the bed and covering her ears with her palms, and pushed her against the glass of the tank hard enough to make her scowl and yell out ‘ow’. And yet, because her skin is marked with lace and leaves and symbols, Darcy stays. She moves back to him when he falls in on himself, she pets through his hair, she holds him even as she shakes. Never once has she asked for a taser or something to help her fight him off, just in case. She refuses to leave when he tells her to and she sticks to her guns when they argue, saying no, no, no.

Or in her words, “Nay, nay I say. You’re stuck with me, homie. We’re in this together.”

The agent doesn’t know why, but she believes. So strongly that even he starts to doubt his own doubting. Which is perhaps why he stays to watch over her the most. He has the longest shifts, he’s the one called in when they’re arguing or talking quietly. He’s the one that hovers and hopes that she’ll come to her senses and leave the tank for longer than a few moments.

Because Darcy believes that being someone’s soul mate will help. She believes that staying, helping, caring for someone can make anyone better. It’s written in every line of her body, every word she speaks, ever silence that hangs in the cell.

Just like confusion, suspicion, and disbelief are shown in the alternating stillness and action of James Barnes.

Phil can’t blame him, really, he thinks as he sets down his cup and links his fingers over his stomach. Leaning back in his chair, his heels go up on the desk and he contemplates the scene before him. The sleeping couple, the way that Barnes pets over the small woman in front of him as if she’s incredibly important and yet, incredibly breakable. He has to look away, the softening of lines as the Sergeant finally gets to the point where he closes his eyes feeling far too intimate to spy upon. And Phil can admit that he’s spying.

Perhaps, just a little, he’s living vicarious through them.

Gloved fingers come under his gaze and the agent gets up with a small frown, moving to his bed. He can see the monitor from there just as well and if they’re sleeping, he should get some shut eye too. There’s a blinking light on his desk that says that someone else has the feed up, which means that May has signed in for her shift. His view is always active, on a screen to the side, or easily accessible. People have stopped commenting on that, at least.

Darcy can believe. Does, seemingly with all her might. Barnes seems to think it’s a fluke from what the Director can figure out. Phil…

Phil thinks that soul mates can be wanted but never found. He’s not a young man, though he’s not as old as the Sergeant either (and maybe that gives him a little bit of hope that he crushes because this job isn’t about hope, it’s about getting things done), and he hasn’t found his own yet. It gives to reason that his soul mate has passed away young or found someone outside of the latticework chains they all carry.

And he’s not naive enough to think they aren’t chains sometimes. That while the universe perhaps didn’t get it wrong, the timing was off, and the bond that was to form was between a young man and a young woman and not the older individuals they became alone.

Like him. Alone like him and just like every night, Phil strips off his safety gloves.

He wears them at all times. Because being in SHIELD meant not having attachments outside of it. Meant having to be wary that if he had latticework, it didn’t show so that some unknown could come in and use the bond to their advantage. He didn’t have to worry about that, of course. He didn’t have color on his skin, just black of tattoos from the army.

(And maybe one is red, white, and blue but that’s hidden on his shoulder blade and never seen again.)

But what he did have to worry about was spontaneously getting one. Bonding with a coworker wouldn’t do. A subordinate was even worse. An enemy would be unenthusiastically ironic and then there was the possibility that it would be a civilian. A person standing in the shadows, just trying to get home when SHIELD swept in. And they’d be unaware of the danger, of the possibility of what was going on from apocalypse to want of world domination. It wasn’t the time to make soul mates, that. And Phil had stayed very careful about not letting anyone close enough to kiss him in a long, long time.

One of the many reasons it didn’t work out with that cellist. Poor woman just wanted a chance and he’d thought he’d been getting close to retirement anyways. It wouldn’t hurt to try the dating scene again. Audrey had been sweet… but she didn’t live the life he did. She couldn’t protect herself and he’d died. Gone away to the great beyond and now. Now he was stuck in much the same boat as Sergeant Barnes.

Back from the dead, dealing with memories he didn’t want. Though his are significantly less in a time frame than the soldier’s. His was short, James’ was long. And for a moment, Phil wonders if the man on the screen remembers being Bucky.

That young man that Captain Rogers remembers, was probably looking for right now. But they’d taken him off the map, took him off the grid. Just like he had been before and Phil lays down, sighing out softly. The Captain wouldn’t stop until his friend was found. They’d have to be extremely careful. If he’d had known who Darcy was… He would have never brought her here. Because now he had to keep her and Jane to their location. And that would mean involving Thor. If they didn’t involve Thor, then he’d come searching for Jane. Most likely, he’d ask the Captain for help. And when they found both who they were looking for in SHIELD custody.

Phil didn’t want to think about those consequences right before bed. Not now. Hopefully not ever.

It’s not until the next morning that what they’re really doing makes him regret his decisions to bring in James’ Barnes. Because Darcy Lewis sits primly on the shelf that could be a bed, legs crossed and meditating because why the Hell not. And James stands in front of him where he’s come to talk with him.

“Tell me what you know of HYDRA.”

“I’ve already told you everything.”

“I’m afraid the short version is not what we’re looking for, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Stop calling me that. I’m no Sergeant. I’m just a sniper. A man who knows too much about heartbeats and taking them away. You want secrets? I don’t have them. Because I wasn’t around long enough to hear them. I bagged and tagged and then was, myself.”

Darcy flinches behind him but she keeps her eyes closed, breathing regular. She’s getting good at that and Phil worries. This young woman has been thrown into a world she never would have dreamed existed and now. Now it had changed into Hell with the devil a part of it all, saying that if they cut off his head, he’ll grow two more.

Only they didn’t have a body to go with it. Just a phantom face in red, almost painted it was so contrasting to natural skin.

“*Расскажите мне, что вы знаете о Гидра.”

“I’ve told you all I know.”

They couldn’t break him. He was, in essence, unbreakable. And Phil’s gaze turned to Darcy once more. Because she had to be the key but she was refusing to do anything that this man before him didn’t want her to do. And the agent was looking for any sort of crack in the assassin’s armor. She was it, but if he tried to use her…

What trust would he build with anyone? What did that make _him_?

Guess he had to find out.

“Miss Lewis. If you would step to the door, please.”

“Uh. Why, home skillet?”

“I am going to have to ask you a few questions.”

“... About?”

“That’s none of your concern, Mr. Barnes.”

There’s a growl as Darcy stands, the other man immediately moving to her. He doesn’t know who SHIELD is, not really. He doesn’t trust them, and Phil can’t blame him after what the agency leadership has done to him. But it’s not all of SHIELD, though all of it was torn down by the other’s friend. Confident. Captain.

Maybe there was no way to make this right, but he couldn’t very well let the other man _go_.

“Doll…”

“I’ll be alright. He stole my iPod once. Pretty sure he’s not that scary.”

“Darcy.”

“No. I got it. You gotta trust me, too. Right? So let’s see what’s he gonna ask.”

“Don’t do this.”

“I can handle myself.”

And she’s at the door, but so is he. Phil sighs, because this wasn’t going to be easy. James didn’t seem willing to leave her side in a military institution that was known to him to be willing to invade and take from the mind of an individual. Unfortunately, having him act as such has put the Director and his team on the defensive, which only makes them look like the aggressor to the young woman between them.

“Mr. Barnes, if you will step back from the glass we’ll refrain from tasing or tranquilizing you.”

“Woah, woah. No. You want me, he doesn’t get hurt.”

“Miss Lewis, if he tries to leave this cell with you, it’s against-”

“I don’t care if it’s against the Geneva Convention, he doesn’t deserve to get hurt!”

He’s sure the argument would have gone on longer. Phil is actually rather positive of that. Unfortunately, an alarm sounds and the doors suction closed, leaving Darcy backpedaling into her soul mate and Phil reaches for his gun. Too soon, it’s cocked and up, ready for whatever is happening as he flips on his earpiece.

“Report.”

“Sir… he’s heading your way.”

“Who is?”

There’s no answer, a crack of thunder sending his electronics into disarray and there’s soon a hole in his very thick, very metal wall. His gun snaps from his hands as a shield rams into his fingers, breaking a few as a very large, very angry, Captain with a much bigger Thor behind him.

Doctor Foster...

“This is what SHIELD has decided to become?” The Captain asks, hands steady as his shield is thrust onto his arm. “First it’s taken apart by HYDRA, then by me. And now you decide to rebuild it by keeping those that need help incarcerated.”

“We’re _trying_ to help.”

“You have kept much from us, Son of Coul. And now you physically bar us from our loved ones through lies and deceit. Lady Foster and Lady Lewis are to come with me.”

“Fury knew I was coming for Bucky. And he knew you were alive, didn’t he. Along with knowing that when I took SHIELD down, I said no more. _All of it._ Should I explain to you how many times SHIELD has lied to me, Agent Coulson? Beyond this, too.”

Phil looks up at the Captain, and he doesn’t waver. But he does see the disappointment in blue eyes and he knows he can’t win this argument. Steve Rogers isn’t known for being easily persuaded and while the Director knows he’s doing right, he can see the other man doesn’t see it that way.

“Steve?”

The quiet name brings all eyes around and the Captain’s whole demeanor changes. His shoulders slope a bit differently, his steps almost seem lighter as he goes to the glass of the cell, but what changes most is his voice.

“Buck.”

“I was HYDRA for a long time, pal. Can’t blame them for trying.”

“They locked you up and took you off the map when they knew I was searching… and you want me to forget about it?”

“No. Because they were going to use her.”

It’s the first time the Captain notices Darcy and Phil realizes that when his hand got hit, the young woman had come to the glass closest to him. One palm spread near, the Director looks at her and realizes that she trusts him. But those words, that Captain America and Thor and her _heroes_ are telling her that she was about to be used by him… he can see where her trust breaks and she steps back, curling in on herself with a frown and glare.

There’s a glance between Captain and Sergeant and Phil realizes that he’s not leaving without both of them now. A deep breath and he goes to explain but things are already in motion.

Or he should say the Captain is already in motion.

A quick slide backwards and a few muttered words to Thor. A shield and hammer go flying at the cell and Phil shouts, because the safety protocols in place are for the Hulk. James Barnes and Darcy Lewis are not Bruce Banner… but the system goes off anyways, sending them flying backwards and out of the place, the glass breaking from the hammer as it goes down deeper into the ground, right towards the last level of the bunker.

They’re gone. Or they will be by the time any member of his team gets down there to try and catch them. And Thor is already turning, flying to where Phil can only assume Doctor Foster is. The Captain isn’t far behind, though he does pause before he jumps out the hole he came through. There’s a look and a sadness that seems to seep from the other man and Phil grabs his gun with his working hand, deciding that someone has to at least try to stop James Barnes from escaping.

“Expect a call from the Avengers, Sir,” comes a few quiet words. “You know, if you’d have just said something. Any of you. It wouldn’t have come down Jane having to call us and tell us she wasn’t allowed to leave.”

The look is gone with the Captain and Phil Coulson is left with a hole in the floor of his cell block and an empty Hulk tank in his basement.

Sitting down in the armory, he rubs at his forehead as May comes in.

“Situation?”

“Gone. All of them. And significant damage to the bunker.”

It wasn’t the best way to tell them he was back from the dead. But then, was there ever a good way to say that?

“Let’s go clean up. And find another base of operations.”

\----------

Расскажите мне, что вы знаете о Гидра = Tell me what you know about HYDRA.


End file.
